- The moments when the game suddenly starts to involve magic and gods in the story.

The Verdict
Developed by Crytek and powered by the cutting-edge CryEngine 3, Ryse: Son of Rome is a great display for the graphical power of the Xbox One or any high-end PC rig - yet sadly it's really nothing more.
With Ryse pretty much lacking in any other department aside from its general presentation, Ryse's troubled development obviously shows in the game seriously being barely anything more than a tech demo to help boost the Xbox One's reputation on launch (at least regarding its graphical capabilities).
Mostly due to its very limitied and overly simplistic combat mechanics, Ryse's level design and gameplay mechanics very quickly run out of tricks and therefore become extremely repetitive and boring in the process. On top of that, boss battles that each play out the same way and unmissable quick-time-events (!) make Ryse not only a very monotone experience but also a very unchallenging one. With that said, in the end, it will most probably only be the great scenery and some occasionally impressive cinematic moments during the game's predictable story that will keep some players playing through this dragging, poorly designed game.